PRESENCE OF MIND.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 5 January 1923, Page 6

PRESENCE OF MIND.

That presence of mind may* be acquired and developed Professor J. Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen University, is certain. In the course of a magazine article he says: "The enviable quality which we call presence of mind means alertness in answering back effectively in difficult situations. It implies an open-mindedness to a considerable range of possibilities. It means an. imaginative all-roundness. The tennis player is ready for all sorts of balls; the public speaker is 'ready for.all sorts of questions; the physician or surgeon is ready for all sorts of 'complications.' A third component is self-possession,, which means a control of attention so that it is focussed on the essential business in hand.'' Professor Thomson suggests that the. cultivation of the quality demands some humility— enough to take the trouble to anticipate probable situations. ''For men of ordinary calibre who have to live crowded hours with many a risk of being hustled, there is undoubtedly wisdom in premeditating the night before the tactics of the day. It is in hurries and scurries that men lose their presence of mind most hopelessly. We do not need modern psychology to tell us that it may save a situation if we decide the day before that on no account will we iose our temper with our visitor, exasperating as he may prove himself to be.